Pau Hana with Jeff Shonka
On weekends, Jeffrey Shonka likes to rip along the south shore of Oahu in his 20-foot Seaswirl speedboat. “Fifty-six [mph] is the fastest I’ve had it up to,” says Shonka, CFO of First Insurance Co. “At that point, my wife,…
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Hawaii’s Vertically Integrated Small Businesses
The technical term is “vertical integration,” and what it simply means is that you create your own raw materials, process them in-house and sell the finished products directly to the public. It’s a huge challenge to do it all yourself,…
Did APEC change the Hawaii Convention Center’s Future?
The expansive Hawaii Convention Centerhasn’t always lived up to its original billing as a regular gathering spot between East and West. It is rarely fully used and has often sat empty since it opened in 1998, squeezed onto the former lot…
Hawaii Business CEO of the Year: Eric Yeaman
In the 4 a.m. darkness each workday, Eric Yeaman slips out of his house and into the garage. Closing the door, he flips on a large-screen TV for the latest news and sports, and runs three to six miles on…
Hawaiʻi's Buy and Sell Entrepreneurs
Cory Asuncion was born to sell. He jokes that he would have rented space in his mother’s womb if that had been possible. “I could sell oil back to the Saudis,” Asuncion says confidently, and with good reason. He’s had…
GIS in Hawaii
“Past is prologue.” – William Shakespeare Darrell Hamamura punches his code into a keypad, pulls open the door to the vault and steps back into the past. As the land information systems manager for Kamehameha Schools, he tracks the endowment’s…
Ukulele Boom Generates Global Sales for Hawaii Companies
Four or five times a year, Mike Upton closes the door in Petaluma, Calif., and flies to China to check an operation that’s making several hundred-thousand Hawaii-inspired ukuleles a year. Originally based in Hawaii, Upton moved to California but maintains…
Unique Scholarships Give Second Chance at College
Jasmine “Tita” Kuhaulua never thought college was an option while she was in high school. After graduation, she had three children in quick succession and the possibility of college receded further. But, the Waialeale Project has changed everything for the 25-year-old, part-time…
6 Great Small Nonprofits and What Makes Them Succeed
Hanahauoli School The first rule of not-for-profits,” writes nonprofit consultant Peter Brinckerhoff, “is mission, mission, and more mission.” Mission, he points out, is a nonprofit organization’s legal reason for existence. It’s why the staff works long hours, often for a…
Hawaii’s Natural Energy Laboratory fuels innovation
Next to Kona International Airport, at Keahole Point, sits a potential gold mine that is home to some of the state’s biggest exporters and groundbreaking research being done nowhere else in the world. The Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority…
My Job: Helping Animals Fight Cancer
Name: Shoko Watanabe, VMD Job: Veterinarian, trained in oncology, at the VCA Family Animal Hospital in Pearl City. Years on the job: 3 Toughest part: It’s hard telling pet owners that their companions have cancer and that chemotherapy could cost…
Understand Your Customers by Using Market Research
What do you really know about your customers? Do you know their ages? Where they live? How much money they make? How many kids they have? Do you know where else they shop? How they make buying decisions? Why they…
Innovation: EggUp and GoEggIt stops movie piracy
Problem: Piracy costs the U.S. movie industry more than $20 billion annually, according to industry experts, who say illegal downloads and bootleg copies prevent many independent filmmakers from turning their passion into a livelihood. Solution: EggUp.com is a platform created in Hawaii…
From the Editor’s Desk: An Important Message from the Continental United CEO
The airlines have trained me well: I pull out the safety card on every flight and follow along with the demonstration or video. I know that puts me in serious nerd territory, but I want to be prepared for that…
APEC Gives Hawaii a Chance to Redefine its Image
When up to 20,000 guests attend the APEC 2011 Leaders’ Week in November, the local blue-ribbon committee promoting business investment here won’t be touting Hawaii’s old standbys. …
4 Successful Women’s Roads to the Top
Each person’s road to success is unique, but these four women shared similar challenges and goals. Each explains that success has never been about money or power, but about personal goals and helping communities. • Attorney Crystal Rose, chair of Central…
Ally Park President, Clinical Laboratories of Hawaii LLP
After earning degrees at Harvard, California Berkeley and Cornell, and working at insurance firm MBIA in New York, Hilo-born Ally Park never thought she would take over the family business. However, “My parents needed a succession plan and they had…
Talk Story with Roger Peters, dck pacific construction
As executive VP and GM of dck pacific construction since 2008, Roger Peters has guided the company through one of the worst building climates in memory. With few major projects (except for rail) on the horizon, we ask Peters for…
Hawaii Food and Wine Festival unlike mainland counterparts
Twenty years after the founding of Hawaii Regional Cuisine, celebrity chefs Alan Wong and Roy Yamaguchi are helping organize a major food festival to benefit farmers and the next generation of chefs. They aren’t just selling food but food-system values, and farmers are the stars…
Hawaii Beekeepers Overwhelmed by Three Pests
When Michael Harris and his sons acquired hives for their Wao Kele Farm in Puna in 2007, the beekeeping industry was much easier. "You'd buy a colony with a queen and hopefully it turned into a productive colony," says Harris,…
Waikiki Construction Refreshes Hotels
In some ways, construction and Waikiki go hand-in-hand. After all, the pleasure palaces along the beach have provided many of the largest recent private construction projects in the state. By some counts, more than $2 billion has been spent over…
Variety of Tenants at Barbers Point
Since it opened in January, Podium Raceway has been packed every weekend with screaming kids and screeching tires. The presence and popularity of the indoor electric-go-kart track signals a new plan for Barbers Point, at least for the short term. Until recently,…
Mobile Entrepreneurs Meet Clients at the Coffice
It's Monday morning and Melissa Chang has gathered her laptop and smartphone, and is on her way to her "coffice," a comfortable setting likeBlue Hawaii Lifestyle, Burgers on the Edge or Good to Grill. There she can settle down with coffee, free Wi-Fi and her…
My Job: Treating Dolphins and Seals Can be Rewarding and Heartbreaking
Name: Gregg Levine, DVM Job: Marine-mammal veterinarian at Dolphin Quest facilities on Oahu and the Big Island, contract veterinarian for the National Marine Fisheries, and small-animal veterinarian and acupuncturist. Years of experience: 12 Toughest part: No matter what kind of…